Although HP printers have spotty Mac support for older printer models as well as some older versions of Mac OS X, the recent versions of HP printers work well with Mac OS X. If you have an HP printer in your office and you want to use it with your Mac, you may only need to download drivers from the HP website, or you may find the printer works in at least a basic mode with no custom drivers required.

Ensure Printer and System Compatibility

Your Mac system should be running at least OS X version 10.4 or later to have the best chance of compatibility with HP printers. Check the HP support website (see the References section) to determine the compatibility of your printer with your specific version of Mac OS X. As of OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion), HP printers are well supported and you may not have to purchase a new printer.

Install HP drivers for Mac OS X

If you still have the driver install disk that came with your printer, check that disk to see if there are Mac OS X drivers and visit the HP support website to see if there are updated drivers available for your printer. This is probably your best path to success since Mac OS X is well supported by HP.

Basic Printing Operation Without Drivers

Many printers will operate in a very basic mode and provide basic printing functionality even without a specific driver. In this mode, you may not be able to take advantage of some special features of the printer, but you may still be able to print. This may be useful if your printer is old enough that there are no Mac OS X drivers available.

Network Sharing Option

If your printer will not work with Mac OS X, another option is to share that printer from a Windows machine over your company network. This way your Mac machine can connect to the shared printer and may still be able to print.

About the Author

John Granby began his writing career in 2000 as a founding member of a tech industry website targeted at WAP developers. He has provided in-depth coverage of the wireless industry, served as a speaker at several conferences and authored a book on Bluetooth. Granby earned a Bachelor of Science in computer engineering from Purdue University.